The Legend of the Jack O Lantern

 With it being the Halloween season coming ever so closer to us. We are all probably getting our pumpkins and getting ready to carve some faces on them.

But has anyone ever heard of the folk tales of how the carving of the pumpkins came to be? Well there are a few different versions of the tale and it is also similar to the story of Will-o-the-wisp.

One story is from Ireland back in the 18th century where Stingy Jack a lazy but shrewd blacksmith tricked the Devil into climbing an apple tree and once up there, Jack placed  or carved a cross on the trunk of the tree so the Devil could not get down.

Another one was that Jack was being chased by people whom he had robbed. Jack runs into the Devil who tells him that it is time for him to die. However, Jack managed to convince the Devil to turn into a coin to be used against the Christian villagers. As the Devil went inside his wallet, there was also a cross inside of the wallet and it trapped the Devil inside.

Both stories also talked about how Jack made a deal with the Devil that he would never take his soul. However, when Jack had passed away, he was unable to enter Heaven for living a too sinful life. So Jack was unable to go into either Heaven or Hell. With nowhere to go, the Devil mockingly gave a burning coal to Jack who placed it into a turnip and used it as a lantern as he wondered the Earth as a spirit.

Another interesting story that I learned was that people back in the day and some do even till this very day use a carved pumpkin as way to protect oneself from undead creatures like Vampires.

Hope and Pray everyone has a fun time carving their Pumpkins. God Bless and Be Safe!

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